Duty free and travel retailer Gebr. Heinemann will debut in the Australian market for the first time next month when the Hamburg-based company will open two stores at Sydney Airport (pictured below).

 

TRBusiness understands that the retailer will open the new units in a pier that handles Asian flights. One store is for the National Geographic brand via a franchise licence agreement, while the other is called A Little Something and has been developed in-house at the company’s Heinemann Asia Pacific (HAP) unit. A Little Something is a concept for retailing gifts, chocolates etc and, if successful, it will be rolled out from Asia into Europe.

 

“This is the first time that Heinemann will make any business at all in Australia (and) this means organic growth for us,” says Raoul Spanger, Gebr. Heinemann, Board Member in charge of retail trade and HR.

 

He adds that the move will also allow HAP to learn more about the market, develop relationships and build business partnerships there to leverage future opportunities.

 

HAP, which is soon to undergo senior management changes, was formed in 2010 and since then has built up a 45-strong office and several distribution agreements in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Bhutan, Myanmar and India.

 

The regional unit has also won a duty free concession for 1,200sq m of retail space at the new low-cost KLIA2 terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia, although airport operator, Malaysia Airports, has delayed the inauguration of the entire project by more than a year to 2014.